I know were in Luke, but were going to start in Proverbs 4 this morning. How many of you this morning have gardens of some sort? A vegetable garden, a flower garden, a rock garden, landscaping? Let me see your hands? How many of you have weeds in that garden? Oh yeah, everybody. Weeds come, dont they? Its just part of the curse. We dont have to look for them; they find us. This is an interesting question: how many of you who have weeds ever dug a hole, deliberately planted a weed, and watered that weed so that it would grow in your landscaping or your yard? Let me see your hands if you planted a weed on purpose. One person…okay. Well have to find out afterwards why he did that, but there is a reason for it. For most of us, we dont have to plant weeds. We dont want weeds. Weeds are unsightly. Weeds rob the nutrients from the vegetables and the plants that we want to have the nutrients. Weeds rob sun, so they take from us. Theyre a curse-not a blessing. We dont want weeds in our garden. The Bible often referred to the heart as soil where seeds are planted and where weeds grow as well. So, were going to use that analogy this morning. Were going to talk about some gardening tips. Were going to talk about some ways we can keep the garden of our heart free from the weeds, free from corruption. We think of weeds as things like greed, selfishness, unforgiveness-all those kinds of things that are opposed to God, against Gods Word. These are the unpleasant things that take root in our lives if were not careful. They can grow and rob us from the blessings that God wants us to have. In the Book of Proverbs 4:23 (page 628 of pew Bibles), Solomon says, Above all else… If he says above all else, it must be pretty important, right? If you say above all else, youre saying, This is top priority. Do this above all things. We had better listen to what hes about to say. Hes using the strongest words in the Hebrew that he can to tell us that what hes about to say is something we all must heed. Above all else… make lots of money? No. Above all else, guard your heart... Guard your heart. Watch over your heart. Why? …for it is the wellspring of life. Its what everything comes from. Your decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is in your heart. Everyday to be a Disciple of the Lord is in your heart. Your decision to obey God or to follow your own path, that comes from your heart. So, he says, Guard it. Watch over it. This happened to me: I had an area of my house that, in the spring, I got it just the way I wanted it. I raked it. I spread the mulch. I put plants in. I trimmed back other things. I got it looking really spiffy. I said, Now, I can go to work on another area. I knew it was going to be a big project. It lasted the rest of the spring. It lasted through the summer, and it lasted into the fall. In the meantime, I had not visited that part of my landscaping for a long time. I finally walked over there one day and looked at it in the fall. I had not seen it since the spring, and I was like hey, what happened? Weeds had started overtaking it. It looked terrible. It had been totally neglected, and as a result it was starting to return back to the wild. Have you ever had a part of your life where you work on it, and you think, Boy, Im getting the best of this and its starting to really straighten up. Now I can work on this other area? You neglect it, and what happens? It starts to go back to the way it was before-if not worse, doesnt it? This guarding our heart business, thats a full-time gig, isnt it? Thats a full-time job. The enemy plants weeds in our hearts. The world plants weeds in our hearts. If were going to sabotage our own garden, we really have our work cut out for it. If youre planting weeds in the very garden youre trying to keep pure from it, youre going to have a struggle. Yet, God says when we harbor these things, when we allow these things-we partake of-these things that displease Him, in essence, were planting weeds in our own garden. Were sabotaging ourselves and our walk. Thats why this is so important that we guard our hearts above all things. Were going to read in Luke today how Jesus gives us five manifestations of love that will help us to guard our heart. [In] Luke 6, remember that the law is summed up in love, or the basis of the law is love. Jesus said that. The law is summed up in these two things: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and [love] your neighbor as yourself. The whole of the law is found in that. So these five manifestations are ways we guard our heart. They are ways we weed; they are ways we prevent weeds from growing and forming. When I treat my lawn, I not only treat the weeds that are there, but [I] put chemicals in the ground to prevent weeds from growing as well; so this is both proactive/preventative and curative-ways to get rid of things already there. Jesus is going to help us guard our hearts. If we follow these five precepts, it will help us guard our hearts. Were going to touch on them briefly and expound on some more in depth as we go. [Starting with] Verse 36 (page 1021 of pew Bibles), Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Notice first of all that our comparison-our standard- is whom? Its God. You say, Well, you know, if you think Im prejudice, you should talk to Bill at the shop. Hes really prejudice; that guy is! You should talk to Frank. If you think Im prejudice, you should talk to Frank over at the factory. Hes really prejudice. Your standard isnt Frank. You say, I like to gossip, but Suzy, shes really bad! She really gossips all the time! Well, your standard isnt Suzy. You prepare yourselves to the Lord. He is our standard. So, …be merciful or have compassion. Thats what this word means. If you have a compassionate heart, if you are walking in mercy, then it is less likely that weeds are going to grow in your garden. Youre fostering that kind of a heart, and that is, of course, an outflow of love. Mercy or compassion is an outflow of love. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. The word judge is where we get the word critical, or criticism, from in the Greek. This word here means to not be hypercritical of another person. Certainly gossip and slander would fall into this as well, malicious slander. Dont be quick to judge; dont be hypercritical. Dont make decisions on somebody without weighing all the facts and without investigating. Then He says (continuing in verse 37 of Luke 6), Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Now this word-condemned-ironically is a word that has the meaning of judgment. This is the one that we would use to say, Do not judge. Really, that word means dont be critical. This word do not condemn in essence means dont judge. Dont come to rash decisions and conclusions. Dont think that without the facts, you know whats on a persons heart and mind and condemn them for it. People do that. Sometimes people might look at you, and theyll say to you, Well, you dont like me because you looked at me funny. Have you ever had that happen? Or people will hear half of the story, draw a conclusion and condemn you. Jesus forbids that. He says, Dont do that. Dont be judgmental; dont be condemning. When you do those kinds of things, youre just planting one weed after another in the garden of your heart. Youre sabotaging your own spiritual walk when you engage in this kind of criticism and judgment and condemnation. Thats all youre doing, sabotaging your own life and your own heart. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. This word means to pardon or release, to let go of something-to release something. If Im having a tug-of-war, and I let go of the rope, thats forgiveness. Youre letting go. Weve talked about this, and weve explained that it is a decision we make. Its not an emotion; its an act of the will. Thats what it is. We saw an example of this in our community. There was a sad story in the news about a woman who was killed by a drunk driver. She was in the car with a drunk driver, and she was with child. [It was] a very sad story. The mother of the woman who lost her life practiced forgiveness. She said she didnt want charges to be brought against him because hed suffered enough, because he was genuinely sorry about what had happened. She chose to forgive him. He would have to suffer for the rest of his life, she said, so the charges of reckless homicide should be dropped according to the mom. What was that? That was forgiveness. Was that a warm, gushy feeling, or was that a decision she made? Was that an act of her will? Forgiveness doesnt mean that what the person did was right or justified. Forgiveness is necessary because God commands it; [he commands it] because if we dont forgive, the only alternative is bitterness. In the Book of James, it says, The root of bitterness grows in our life, and it defiles us. James says we are to be on guard against it. It will spread like a weed in your life. Guard against bitterness. The way to remove that weed is forgiveness. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. You give… Thats whats so scary to me about our church-in a good way-right now. I see how we are becoming such a giving church. I think of our giving right now in Monterey Ministry. We sent a group of 28 people to the Dominican Republic, but the congregation sacrificed a lot to send us there. While we were there, these 28 people gave of ourselves to people who could not give back. You are continuing to give, continuing to send. The trustees, we were going over our missions giving for the last quarter. [There were] almost $10,000 given to world missions, not including the trips weve been on. You sent me, as a thank you for 25 years of ministry, to Sweden to minister there at that camp conference. God blessed that ministry. Youre giving, and if you keep this up, watch out! Watch out in a good way because God is going to bless our socks off! What He is saying here is you cant outgive God. You can try, but the more you give, the more God blesses. Ive seen our [church] body really grow in the area of our time, our resources, and of our own energies. I saw a lady who was wearing a T-shirt that said, We all have problems, but mine are more important than yours (the congregation laughs). Thats the problem with selfishness and greed. Were just planting all these weeds, planting all these unsightly things in the garden of our hearts. But giving, having a giving heart, rids us of selfishness and greed. It cleans us out; it cleans the garden; it pulls the weeds. Jesus says, It will work at guarding our hearts. This is how we do it, these five manifestations of love. Were going to be merciful, not be quick to judge, quick to condemn, [and well be quick] to forgive and to give. I found that gardening my heart is a full-time job. I think that youve found that gardening your heart, watching over your heart, is a full-time job. Thats why Im always so amazed that there are some people who can garden their hearts-as big of a job as that is-and still have enough time to garden yours. Isnt that amazing? They are so efficient-they are so good at what they do-that it almost seems like they have more time to work on the garden of your heart than they do on their own garden. Isnt that amazing? Teach me those skills, how you can be so proficient as weeding and taking care of all the problems in your own life-that you can spend the majority of your time working on somebody elses. You understand Im being facetious. Jesus talks about that. He says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? No attention! In other words, youre spending so much time taking inventory for others, youre not even paying attention to whats going on in your own life. You come with a bucket or a shovel. Are you coming to take it in, or are you coming to elbow and say, Boy, Im glad so-and-so is here to hear that!? Do you know who the Lord is glad to have been here and heard that? You! He says, How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when you yourself failed to see the plank in your own? You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye! First deal with your own problems, your own weeds. Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers eye. We dont normally do this: [record] conversations that [take place] behind closed doors, tape them and show them in church. We thought wed make an exception this Sunday. These two guys are out of town, so were going to show you this confrontation that weve taped here as one brother confronts another brother about the sin in his life. Lets watch. You may have been involved in a conversation like that at some point-its a comedic. I think when Jesus told this, when he talked about the speck and the plank, I bet there were some chuckles. Its a funny thing to think about, somebody doing this, but we do it. Jesus is saying here, You have enough work cut out for you with just your own life. Watching over your own heart requires diligence. Some have taken these passages, such as the one we just read: Do not judge; do not condemn and the part about the speck and the log in your eye, and theyve said, This is teaching that we cant judge people. We cant form opinions. We cant take any action steps. The church can never discipline. This is just the way it is. How many of you have heard this passage interpreted that way? A lot of us have. A lot of us have. Lets read on to what Jesus says in Verse 43, No good tree bears bad fruit… By the way, the tree is representative of a life, in this analogy, and the fruit is the representative of our actions and our deeds. No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree or each person is recognized by its own fruit. In Matthew 7:20 (page 961), Jesus gives a similar teaching and sums it up by saying, By their fruits, you will know them, or by our fruits, you will recognize them. God says, You can be a fruit inspector if you look at the fruits of someones life. People do not pick figs from thornbushes or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. Youd almost think there that Jesus is talking about us forming judgments based upon facts, wouldnt you? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Jesus says you will know that somebody is what they say they are or not by their actions and by the words that come out of their mouths. He is saying here that you can form an opinion. You can make a judgment when you have facts, when you have proof. If there is a consistent lifestyle, consistent things that are happening, you can form an opinion. It does not at all mean that you and I can ever form judgments about people or situations. It condemns a superficial judgment, a judgment that has not weighed the facts, a judgment that has not heard both sides. That is a judgment that is wrong and should have no part in our lives. Jesus says you can weigh a life; you can look at consistent fruit and the overflow of the heart and form an opinion. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 5. Lets turn there (page 1131). In 1 Corinthians 5, hes writing about immorality in the church in Corinth. That immorality involves a person who is unrepentant. They are not sorry for what they have done, and they are continuing to do the very thing that God does not approve of. Theyre doing it in a blatant way, and the church is looking the other way. The church is doing nothing about the problem. It is simply allowing it to exist. Paul is appalled not only by the sin, but he is equally appalled by the church turning the other way and not dealing with the sin. Have you ever read in the newspaper or seen in the news about churches or denominations or groups that have had sin within their church, and leadership has looked the other way? How about almost every week? Almost every week it happens. I deal with it. Ive dealt with leaders who have come to me and have said, Can you help us? Heres what has happened in our church. Can you help guide us through this situation? Because they know weve been through situations, they have come to us and said, You handled this right. Can you help us to deal with this? [This is] because churches do not often deal with things biblically. Many do, but many dont and have disastrous results as a result of that. They look the other way, probably because there were some people in the church saying, You know you shouldnt judge. You know we shouldnt condemn, shouldnt judge people. Paul says, Wait a second. Youre not understanding that Scripture. Youre not rightly applying the word of truth. He says in Verse 3, Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed what? …judgment on the one who did this as if I were present. He talks about why this person needs to be removed from the body. He talks about how yeast gets in a loaf of bread and spreads all through the bread. So if this sin is allowed to exist in your body, it will befoul your body. It will spread throughout your body. We need to do something with it. Verse 12, What business of it is mine to judge those outside the church? Now listen to the next rhetorical question. Paul says, Are you not to judge those inside? Its a rhetorical question. The answer is yes. God will judge those outside. Then he quotes Deuteronomy and says, Expel the wicked man from among you. When Jesus gave that teaching in Luke, it was an apparent contradiction. If were to understand when he says, Do not judge and do not condemn, does it mean we can never form a judgment or opinion or take an action based upon behavioral words? [If thats the case] then Paul contradicted Jesus because he just said we could. Sometimes the church does have to take this action. Its rare. Were going on 18 years of ministry this January, and the amount of times weve had to remove people from our body you can count on one hand and not use every finger. When its done, its done with the plurality of leadership. Its something the elders would be in agreement upon as a body. When youre dealing with an individual who is in sin and is unrepentant of that sin and in your opinion is harmful to the body… If a person is repentant, remorseful, and makes amends, you can do wonders, but if a person is not, then leadership has a responsibility to act in the best interest of the church and according to the commands of Gods Word. We read the story in John 8 about the woman caught in adultery. The men gather stones in their hands, and they come to Jesus to trap Him. They say, The law says we should stone this woman caught in adultery. What do You say? Jesus says, Let her go. They will say, What about the law? and if Jesus says, Stone her, theyll say, What about all the forgiveness and grace you talk about? No matter which way He goes, Hes trapped. Jesus then stoops down to the ground and begins to write, and the word is katagraphien, [meaning] to write against. Its not just doodling or scribbling. Hes writing on the ground. They look down and see what Jesus is doing. They read the words. Jesus stands up and says, He who is without sin casts the first stone. Youre so busy taking the inventory of this woman; youre so busy pointing out the weeds in her garden, what about those in yours? You have enough to take care of. You need to get home and start doing some pulling in your own garden. One by one, they drop their stones and walk away. There is one who could throw a stone. There was one without sin, but He does not throw a stone. He sees her repentant spirit. He sees her brokenness. He sees her sorrow and grief. She knows what she did was wrong, and shes embarrassed and ashamed. She wants to live a life that honors God, so He says, Neither do I condemn you. He practices the very thing He preached. He said, Go on. Leave your life of sin. I guarantee you that story would have had a different ending. The reason that woman was able to go and have a new start was because of her repentant spirit, her brokenness over sin. I guarantee you that if Jesus had said, Neither do I condemn you. Go, leave your life of sin, and she would have stood up and said, What do you mean, sin? Its not sin. I dont believe in sin. Ill do what I want with whom I want, when I want, where I want, whenever I want, and You cant tell me what to do. I guarantee you that the story in John wouldnt end the same way. Jesus might have a response to that. Jesus might have something He would say to her about her lifestyle and choice. When somebody has made that decision to defy the Lord and is unrepentant, church leadership has a responsibility then to act in the best interest of the body. By the way, two years from now or five years from now, when somebody you know is removed from the church, there is really good reason for it. We may not be able to give you all the salacious details, but know that decision was made in community and know that decision was made with investigation. Feel free to come to us and talk with us. [You can] say, I want to know. I liked Charlie. I liked Mary Sue. Whered they go? Without divulging confidentiality, we will share with you why the elders made the decision they made without breaking or giving salacious details away. Its okay to ask that question. Know its done in community, and know its rare. My prayer is that it will never happen again in this body. Should that situation ever arise, the leadership will address it and deal with it. We will not cover it up. We will not hide it. Paul is not done. Look at Verse 9. He says, I have written to you in my letter, not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral… Thats not what I meant. …or the greedy or swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate… That means to have a close friendship with. …not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother… calls himself a Christian. …but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man… such a person, …do not even eat. Does it sound to you there like Paul is saying its okay to form a judgment when you have facts? There are times when judging is necessary, but its not superficial. Its not assumptive-if that is a word. It is something when one has heard both sides of an issue, when one has pondered, one has investigated, one has looked at the acts of a life and made a decision. The people Paul is talking about here are not people who occasionally have struggled with this, repented and moved on. What Paul here is talking about is habitual sin Somebody who names the name of Christ and has lived a lifestyle contrary to the Word of God does so blatantly and openly and without repentance. Paul says, That is a person you break fellowship from. You make a judgment and you break fellowship. Some of you have been in relationships that are harmful and destructive because youve been taught you shouldnt judge. You need to make some decisions. If thats the case, you need to be seeking some pastoral counsel, some professional help and guidance because those webs can get pretty complicated and pretty hard to untangle. You can say, Im in a friendship, Im in a relationship, where somebody names the name of Christ, and yet, they live totally contrary to that. Its inconsistent. Their behavior, their confession of Christ, and their lifestyle are totally incongruent with one another. As Christians, Paul says, You can make a judgment about that individual. You can take action steps and [decide] with whom you will spend time. As a church, leadership has responsibility from time to time to make judgment and in extreme cases, even expel someone from fellowship because of it. So what are our action steps this morning? There are a lot of them. The first thing you must do is you must look at your garden and say, How am I doing in those manifestations? Am I guarding my heart? Am I trying to live my life with compassion and forgiveness, trying not to be quick to condemn or judge? [Am I] a forgiving and giving person? What weeds are in my garden that need to be removed right now? Who do I need to forgive? Who do I need to show mercy toward? If youre really brave, find somebody and say, Hey, help me with my garden. I give you permission to tell me areas that need help, areas Ive neglected. Help me to be a gardener, and Ill help you, not in the spirit of the guy in the video. When youve given permission for somebody to do that, thats for the brave. Secondly, determine if youre making sure you are taking care of your garden first, your heart first, watching over your heart first. Youre not so busy taking others inventory or watching over others hearts that youre neglecting your own? The Lord said thats hypocritical. He said, First take care of your own life. Guard over your own heart. Make sure youre putting that first. Thirdly, and this will not be the majority of this-this will be a minority-but there are some who need to make some judgments. Maybe youre involved in a relationship or a friendship that is destructive. Somebody is naming the name of Christ and yet living contrary to everything the Lord stands for. You need help in that area; you need advice. Im not telling you to make any rash decisions, but Im telling you to pray, seek counsel, and in many cases, take action. It is a misnomer to say, We dont judge people. Thats a blanket statement. Its not what Christ meant. Christ would be contradicting His own self in that passage if that were the correct interpretation of that verse. So we have a lot to do, dont we? Every person here has a lot to do. Guarding our hearts is something that is a lifetime job, 24/7. God has promised to help us do that. God is using this message in many of your lives this morning to do that very thing. Following these precepts, following these directives, will enable you to guard your heart. Lets stand for prayer. Well pick up there next week. Im going to ask our youth minister, Mike Powers, to close us in prayer this morning.